Beyond the Beach: The Allied War Against France (History of Military Aviation) - Hardcover

Stephen Alan Bourque (author)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1612518737 ISBN 13: 9781612518732

Publisher: Naval Institute Press, 2018

Synopsis

Beyond the Beach examines the Allied air war against France, especially from April through June 1944. During this period, General Dwight David Eisenhower, as Allied Supreme Commander, took control of all American, British, and Canadian air units, including the heavy bombers of RAF Bomber Command and the United States Army Strategic Air Forces. Rather than employ these aerial systems in a strategic manner, attacking targets deep in Germany, he used them for his own tactical and operationalpurposes. Employing bombers as, virtually, his long-range artillery he, through his air staff and commanders, directed the destruction of bridges, rail centers, ports, militaryinstallations, and even French towns, with the intent of preventing German reinforcements from interfering with Operation Neptune, the Allied landings on the Normandy beaches. This intense bombing operation, conducted against a friendly occupied state, resulted in a swath of physical and human destruction across northwest France. Ultimately, this air offensive resulted in the death of over 60,000 French civilians and an immense amount of damage to towns, churches, buildings, and works of art. This book explores, therefore the relationship between ground and air operations and its effects on the French population. It begins by considering the three broad groups the air operations involved: the occupied French, the occupying Germans, and Eisenhower's headquarters. It then examines the doctrine and equipment used byAllied air force leaders to implement the supreme commander's plans. Next, it examines each of the eight major operations, called lines of effort, that coordinated the employment of the thousands of fighters, medium bombers, and heavy bombers that prowled the French skies that spring and summer of 1944. Each of these sectionsdiscusses the operation's purpose, conduct, and effects upon both the military and the civilian targets. Finally, the book explores short and long term effects of these operations and argues that this ignored narrative should be part of any history of the D-Day landings.

About this title

Review:

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The sacrifices of the D-Day Loperation overlord, whose 75th anniversary will be celebrated on Thursday, saw 60,000 French perished under allied bombs.Written by a specialist in military history, this book brings back the shadows of this terrible episode. Histoire

With little to no knowledge or publicity of these events, with the exception of the French themselves, one gets the impression of a successful air campaign surgically destroying intended targets in support of Overlord. Yet this was obviously not the case. This is a story that needed to be told, so that the victims can be remembered long after their death. The Journal of America's Military Past

The throngs of French citizens attending the festivities in Normandy today and in decades past were no doubt genuinely grateful to their liberators, yet that gratitude must surely be tempered with the knowledge of the great cost that came with that liberation. After three-quarters of a century, it is high time that those outside France become just as acquainted with those unpalatable details. Bourque has done a masterful job of laying out that cost in great detail, and I doubt that after reading Beyond the Beach anyone could ever look upon Eisenhower's crusade with the same eyes again. Hampton Roads Naval Museum

[A] well-conceived and well-researched book.... A book rife with lessons for our generation, Beyond the Beach is one of the most important texts to appear about the war in France in years. New Books Network

Beyond the Beach offers a haunting yet important narrative which will greatly interest readers of military history in general and World War II in particular. A great deal of controversy remains to this day concerning the air war over France, for just as Allied air operations took the lives of many French innocents, they significantly aided the American, British, and Canadian soldiers who would later land on the beaches of Normandy in the summer of 1944. Bourque ultimately concludes that there is no easy or incontrovertible way to remember the Allied air war over Franceor any chapter of World War II, for that matter. For even historys most noble and necessary war was filled with the horror of blood, brutality, and butchery that reminds audiences old and new that no war is ever anything other than a tragedy. H-War

The euphoria generated by the successful landings in Normandy, and the subsequent breakout from the beachheads, has largely glossed over the consequences and collateral damage in France. The author has provided a worthy evaluation of the costs, with the short term and long term effects Most Highly Recommended. FIRE Project

"With Beyond The Beach, Stephen Bourque drives us beyond the myth of a victory only based on justice and heroism. Through a brilliant and accurate global analysis the author reminds us that under the Allied bombs were not only German targets but real people, real villages, real cities. And the heavy price French civilians have paid to Freedom!"Paul Le Trevier, French historian, expert in Allied bombing over Normandy

"Stephen Bourque's 'Beyond the Beach' is a well-conceived, well-argued, and well-written exploration of the last major neglected corner of the aerial conflict over western Europe. An indispensable book for anyone interested in the air war, it manages at the same time to earn that precious moniker few other works attain: an important book about World War II."Thomas Alexander Hughes, author of Over Lord: General Pete Quesada and the Triumph of Tactical Air Power in World War II and Admiral Bill Halsey: A Naval Life

Beyond the Beach is an essential addition to our understanding of the battle for France, these deaths, generally glossed over as collateral damage, profoundly shaped the French attitudes towards and understanding of the war. The Strategy Bridge

About the Author:

After twenty years of enlisted and commissioned service in the US Army, Stephen A. Bourque obtained his Ph.D. at Georgia State University and taught history at several military and civilian schools and universities, including the School of Advanced Military Studies, US Army Command and General Staff College, where he is Professor Emeritus.

About this edition

• Publisher: Naval Institute Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1612518737
• ISBN 13: 9781612518732
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352